The elusive nap points.

During any transition between activities (which in a 90-minute block, there are generally quite a few), my first block students always suggest naptime. Their obsession with naptime grew when I got irritated with the naptime suggestions one day (students love to push your buttons!), so after that, I decided to give in to their naptime desires. Kind of.

No, they do not get naptime. Yes, I tell them to sit-up-with-their-back-straight whenever they're drooping or sleeping.

But they THINK they're getting a naptime someday. After my first observation from the district foreign language head went well, I was praising the students on their excellent participation during that time. The students suggested naptime as their reward, of course. Instead of getting irritated or telling them to just be quiet, I said (in what could only be the result of improvisation) that they had earned two nap points. Of course, the next question was how many nap points they need to earn naptime. I love overexaggerating with my students (the answer to when they get to leave my class is always "never", and the answer to how long the test will be is always "800 pages/questions". Eventually they're learn to just not ask), so I said they needed 1,000,000 points for naptime.

Instead of being discouraged at the thought of trying to earn 1,000,000 nap points, they got excited trying to figure out how they could earn nap points. Honestly, I've given approximately 0 thought to it, because naptime during my German class will never ever be a thing, but they're enjoying it, so that's fine with me! They always ask if they can get more nap points for various things, to which I just threaten to take away the two points they have. One student offered me $10 and asked how much that would buy. I said half of a point. One student asked how much $1,000,000 would buy (silly question--technically only 500,000 points), but I responded by saying as many naptimes as they wanted, because then I'd just quit my job and move to Switzerland ;-)

They also complained about my lack of Kleenex, so I told them each box was worth half a point. (I hope no one brings me 2,000,000 boxes of Kleenex ever.)

Yesterday, one kid said "Man, it's so hard to get nap points, but it's so easy to get them taken away!" It's so hard not to bust out laughing at these things!

Maybe I should award a whole point if they can go a day without suggesting naptime. Bet they'll never see that point.

It may sound stupid, and it probably is very stupid, but it's the little, silly things that keep the class fun.